Method of making pile fabrics



H. L. SHUTTLEWORTH METHOD OF MAKING PILE FABRICS Nov. 13, 1951 2Simms-sm? 1 Filed Feb. .1.5. 1`947 W y E y y w A T TORNEYS Nov.y 13519151 H. L. SHUTTLEWORTH METHOD OF 'MAKING PILE FABRICS 2 SHEETS-Sl-IEET2 Filed Feb. .1.5, 1947 luma (YUUUUUU /MWQ ATTORNEYS Patented Nov. 13,1951 METHOD F MAKING PILE FABRICS Howard L. Shuttleworth, Amsterdam, N.Y., assignor to Mohawk Carpet Mills, Inc., Amsterdam, N. Y., acorporation of New York Application February 15, 1947, Serial No.728,867

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates to woven pile fabrics, such as are used for rugsand carpets, in which the pile is formed by means of wires inserted intothe shed during the weaving operation, to raise portions of the` pilewarp yarns out of the backing of the fabric. More particularly, theinvention is concerned with a novel woven pile fabric, in whichdecorative effects are obtained by the use in the pile of both tufts andloopsof different height. The pile of the new fabric may, accordingly,have embossed or relief effects and a patterned surface, in whichdifferent areas differ in appearance by reason of the use therein oftufts and loops, respectively.

In looms, in which the pile is formed over pile wires, the wires areinserted into the shed made up of the warps and are beaten up by the layand bound in place by loops of the pile yarns. The looped portions ofthe pile yarns are, in turn, held in place by the weft shots secured inposition by the binder warps or fine chains. During the weaving, a wireremains in the fabric until a number of others have been inserted behindit, whereupon it is withdrawn from the fabric, advanced to the head ofthe series, and again inserted into the shed. The pile surface of thefabric so produced may have a design or pattern fprmed by pile yarns ofdifferent colors raised over the wires by a jacquard mechanism to formloops, although, if desired, the wires may have knife edges so that,upon withdrawal of such a wire, it will sever the loops and convert theminto tufts.

Fabrics having relief effects in the pile surface have heretofore beenproduced on looms provided with pile wires of different height and ithas been customary to form the pile loops in the ground area by wiresofv one height and those in the figures or parts of the figures by wiresof another height. In such a fabric, all the loops in a singletransverse row across the fabric must be of the same height, since theyare all formed on the same wire, and, where a row passes through areas,in which the pattern requires loops of different height, not all ofthose loops can be made on the same wire and, consequently, the row ofloops is incomplete. In order to avoid the appearance of spaces in thepile surface of such a fabric, it is necessary to employ an increasednumber of rows of tufts per unit of length and this adds to the cost ofmanufacture.

loops, or both may be of different height. The invention alsocomprehends a novel method by which the fabric of the invention may beproduced in a practical and economical manner. The new fabric issuperior to prior fabrics in that, if desired, each transverse row ofloops may contain its full complement of loops, even though these loopsmay be of different height. Also, the formation of the loops throughoutthe fabric is so controlled that loops of different height areaccurately produced at selected points. The method of the invention maybe practiced on standard looms, as, for example, looms of the Wiltontype, modified by the use of a new combination of wires.

In a loom utilized for the practice of the method, the wires are of twotypes arranged in alternation. The wires employed for the production oftufts are provided with knife edges and the main portion of each suchwire is of uniform height from end to end of the wire. When the pileyarns are raised over a tuft wire and then bound in place in the fabric,the yarns are first formed into loops of the same height as the mainportion of the wire, and, when the wire is later withdrawn, the loopsare formed into tufts, the legs of which are slightly longer than theheight of the original loops.

The alternate wires in the loom are used for the formation of loops andeach such wire has a main portion of substantially less height than themain portion of a tuft wire. The end of each loop wire, which trailswhen the wire is withdrawn, is of greater height than the main portionof that wire. When the pile warps are raised over a loop wire, and thenbound in the fabric, the loops initially formed are substantiallyshorter than the tufts, but, upon withdrawal of the loop wire, theenlarged trailing end thereof increases the height of each of the loops.Preferably, the enlarged end has a height substantially the same as thatof the main body of a tuft wire, so that the enlarged loops formed bywithdrawal of a loop wire are only slightly shorter than the legs of thetufts. The enlargement of the loops by withdrawal of a loop wire Thepresent invention is directed to the promay have no effect on loopspreviously formed or may reduce the height of those loops, and

I wire and a tuft wire, respectively, that are used in weaving the newfabric.

The fabric of the invention includes a backing generally designated Iand a pile surface indicated at II. The backing may be of any desiredconstruction and that illustrated includes stuil'er warps I2, two setsof pile warps I3, I4, two sets of binder warps or fine chains I5, I6,and weft shots I'I, I8 in upper and lower levels, respectively. It is tobe understood that the backing may include weft shots in more than twolevels and any of the other usual variations in backing construction.

, In the fabric shown, the weft shots in the two series are boundagainst the stuier and pile warps by the iine chains which cross aboveand below the weft shots. During the weaving, the pilel yarns are raisedbetween successive weft shots in the upper series by means of a jacquardmechanism to produce a pile containing pattern figures in accordancewith a design. v

The new fabric is woven by means of Wires of the type shown in Figs. and6 and employed in alternation. The wire of Fig. 5 is for the formationof pile loops and it includes a main portion I5 and an enlarged head 20at the end of the wire which trails when the wire is withdrawn. Theupper edge of the wire is formed with a sloping surface a leading fromthe top of the main portion to the top of the enlargement. When thiswire is inserted during the weaving operation. certain pile yarnsselected by the action of the jacquard lie in the upper part of the shedand, when the shed changes, these pile yarns are lowered so as to lieupon the top of the main portion I9 of the wire. A weft shot in theupper series is then inserted to bind the raised pile yarns in position,and the raised yarns form low loops 2|. The next wire inserted in theshed is of the type shown in Fig. 6, and it includes a main portion 22having a height substantially the same as the height of the enlargedportion 28 of a loop wire. At its end, which trails during withdrawal,the tuft wire has a knife blade 23 mounted with its edge extendingupwardly at an angle. Upon insertion of the tuft wire, the pile yarnswhich lie in the upper part of the shed are lowered and bound by a weftshot of the upper series. The

portions of the yarns remaining on the wire then initially form highloops 24.

The insertion of the loop and tuft wires in alternation continues untilthe wire first inserted must be withdrawn and returned to the head ofthe series. If this wire is a loop wire, the movement of its enlargedend through the low loops 2I will increase the height of those loops, sothat. upon withdrawal of the wire, allthe loops in the row formed by theuse of the wire become high loops 25. The additional length of yarnrequired for thus increasing the height of any low loop may be obtainedin one of several ways. For example, if a low loop is made of a yarnwhich has been embedded in the fabric for some distance immediatelyahead of the loop, the additional length of yarn required forenlargement of the low loop is the yarn. An instance of such a loop isshown at 28 (Figs. 1 and 4) and, if the yarn in this loop is embedded inthe fabric for a distance following the point of formation of the loop,the embedded portion of the yarn is stretched when loop 28 is convertedfrom a low loop to a high loop by withdrawal of the wire. over which theloop was formed.

If the yarn in a loop being increased in height by withdrawal of a loopwire has been used in the formation of a number of loops arrangedconsecutively lengthwise of the fabric, the loop immediately precedingthat being enlarged is a high loop. When the wire is withdrawn from theloop last formed, the additional length of yarn required for enlargingthat loop is then obtained by withdrawal of yarn from the immediatelypreceding high loop and that high loop is converted to a low loop.Accordingly, in any longitudinal series of loops of the same yarn, allbut the last loop in the series will be low loops of the height of loop2| and the last loop in the series will be a high loop 25. This is shownin Fig. 1, in which loops 21, 28, and 29 form a longitudinal series.Loop 2'I was a high loop, when the wire about which it was formed waswithdrawn. but it was converted to a low loop, when the. wire waswithdrawn from the following loop 28. At that time, loop 28 was a highloop but it became a low loop upon withdrawal of the Wire from loop 29.Following the formation of loop 29, the yarn used for loops 21, 28 and29 was embedded in the fabric and thus, upon formation of the next loop30 of that yarn, the yarn required to form loop 30 as a high loop wasobtained by stretching the embedded portion of the yarn and not byreducing the height of the loop 29.

In the weaving of the new fabric, the yarns forming the tufts ordinarilydiffer in color from the result will be a high loop followed by a tuft.

the legs of which are slightly longer than the loop. If the yarn israised over a tuft wire and then, immediately after, over a loop wire,the additional length of yarn required for the enlargement of the loopupon withdrawal of the loop wire will be obtained by shortening one legof the tuft. This situation is illustrated in Fig. 2, where the loop 3Iimmediately follows a tuft having a short leg32 and a long leg 33. Loop3i, which was a'high loop, upon withdrawal of the wire therefrom. hasbeen converted to a low loop, because it is the first in a longitudinalseries of loops all made of the same yarn. It is not objectionable toraise a yarn over a loop wire and over the next tuft wire, sincewithdrawal of the tuft Wire does not alter the height of the loop and,if the yarn is embedded for a distance after being raised over the tuftwire before it is again raised over a loop wire, withdrawal of thesecond loop wire will not aiect the legs of the tuft. However, raising ayarn over a tuft wire and over the next loop wire with resultantreduction in the height of the tuft leg adjacent the loop isobjectionable for several reasons. Thus, the short tuft leg is likely tobe shorter than the adjacent low loop, in which event the pile mayappear to have a thin spot at the location of the short tuft leg. Inaddition, the scuing action of rubber heels on the adjacent loop may besuch as to pull the yarn in the short tuftleg from beneath the weft shotbindingl the yarn between the short tuft leg and the loop. If.

that occurs. the loop is replaced by a length of yarn equal in lengthtothe length of the loop plus the length of the short tuft leg andthislong length of yarn will project above the pile surface and give ita ragged appearancaras well as producing a thin spot in the pile. 'I'heraising of a yarn over a tuft wire and then over the next loop wire is,accordingly, to be avoided in the production of the fabric.

The weaving of the new fabric proceeds inthe usual way with the yarnsraised over the alternate loop and tuft 'wires in accordance with thepattern and, at th completion of the weaving operation, the fabric isnished by,the usual operations, including shearing the ends of thetufts. 'I'he high loops 24 severed to produce the tufts are initially ofthe same height as the high uncut loops 25, but when loops 24 aresevered, the cut ends project upwardly sumciently above the height ofthe high uncut `oops 25, so that portions 34 of the tufts may be shearedwithout/injuring the tops ofloops 25.

By the practice of the new method, a fabric may be produced in which thepile has ground areas of low loops and figure areas of tufts with therear margin of each ground area outlined by high loops. If desired, ofcourse, the reverse arrange-- ment may be employed with the ground areaformed of tufts and the ligure areas of loops. In either case, the useof the high loops along the rear margins of the loop areas causes theseareas to be set olf and novel effects are thus obtained.

It will be apparent that the relative height of the tufts and low loopsmay be varied as desired, but the high loops are always slightly lowerthan the tufts in order that the latter can besheared without damage tothe high loops. The relative heights of the loops and tufts izgbtainedby using wires of which the main portio have the desired widths, as, forexample, the loop wires may have a height in the main portion of .150"and a maximum height in the enlargement of .290. When such loop wiresare employed, the tuft wires used have a height of at least .290" withthe knives projecting upwardly to the desired extent to effect goodcutting.

I claim:

1. A method of making a pile fabric having a backing and a plurality ofpile warps which comprises forming the backing with the pile warps heldtherein by elements of the backing, raising the pile warps selectivelyfrom the backing in accordance with a pattern and restoring them to thebacking to form transverse rows of portions of the pile warps projectingabove the backing to form pile having portions thereof in alternate rowsprojecting from the backing to a height higher than the pile warps inother rows, cutting said portions in said alternate rows along thebacking to form tufts, while leaving the portions in the intermediaterows uncut to form loops, increasing the height of the loops in each rowthereof to a height less than the height of the tufts and then reducingthe height of only the loops of those pile warps of which portions areraised in the next succeeding intermediate row.

2. A method of making a pile fabric having a backing and pile warpswhich comprises forming the backing with the pile warps held therein byelments of the backing, raising the pile warps selectively from thebacking in accordance with a pattern and restoring said pile warps tothe backing to form transverse rows of portions of the pile warpsprojecting above the backing to form y pile loops, alternate rows ofsaid loops projecting above the backing to a height greater than theloops in intermediate rows, cutting the high loops in said alternaterows along the backing to form double rows of pile tuft legs, the tuftlegs in each such double row being of thesame height, while leaving theloops in intermediate rows uncut, increasing the height of the loops ineach intermediate row thereof to a height less than the height of thetuft legs, and then reducing the height of the loops of substantiallyonly those pile warps, which are raised to form loops in the nextsucceeding intermediate row.

HOWARD L. sHUTrLEwoRTH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the nie ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number- A Name Date 1,714,104 Pearsall May 21,1929 2,015,810 Morgan Oct. 1, 1935 2,164,090 Shuttleworth June 27, 19392,270,103 Baynton Jan. 13, 1942 2,318,499 Keen May 4, 1943 2,477,249Harding July 26, 1949 mamon PATENTv s Number Country Date 273,409 GreatBritain July 6, 1927

